5 Clean Beauty Brands To Know Now

In celebration of Earth Day on April 22, Vogue spotlights five sustainably-minded beauty brands and the hero products to try straight away.

In the past decade, the beauty industry has been transformed by a rising global demand for cleaner, healthier and more sustainably packaged beauty products. The industry has long been a significant contributor to landfill waste - to the tune of 2.7 billion plastic bottles per year, according to Herbivore Botanicals co-founder Julia Wills - and widely criticised for being far slower to adopt more ethical practices than the fashion industry. But the tide is starting to turn.

We have millennials and social media to thank for that, according to Sarah Coonan, head of beauty at British department store Liberty. “People now have a direct line to their favourite brands, they can call them out when they are not happy with something,” she says. Lisa Payne, senior beauty editor at research and trend firm Stylus, agrees: “As this demographic grows up in age and influence, their ethical values are going to force brands that haven’t already considered their own sustainable and ethical values into a corner.”

Want to introduce a bit more eco-mindfulness to your own beauty regime? Here are five clean beauty brands to get you started.

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Tata Harper

Known as the queen of green, Colombian-born Tata Harper has built an A-list following around her eponymous line. Beloved for their non-toxic, natural and results-driven formulas, the products are created, batched and shipped straight from her Vermont farm (Gwyneth Paltrow and Emma Watson are fans). She started her brand almost a decade ago after a family health scare caused her to reassess her own beauty purchases. “I realised I couldn’t find what I was really looking for, a 100 percent natural, non-toxic luxury product,” she tells Vogue. “Going natural or organic in beauty used to be considered a downgrade, and I wanted to change all that because, when done right, natural beauty is the ultimate luxury.”

Herbivore Botanicals

In 2011, Julia Wills and Alex Kummerow, a husband-and-wife team based in Seattle, began Herbivore Botanicals on Etsy. Little did they know they were starting one of beauty’s most coveted brands (their Bamboo Charcoal Soap has achieved bonafide cult status). All Herbivore products are packaged in recyclable glass and boxes and made from biodegradable ingredients sourced close to home to reduce their carbon footprint. “We take sustainability very seriously,” says Kummerow. Together, they are leading an industry-wide shift towards a more circular production cycle.

RMS Beauty

Celebrated make-up artist Rose-Marie Swift became an advocate for clean beauty when she found the beauty products she was using were making her sick. Literally. Toxic levels of metals, pesticides and chemicals found in her bloodstream opened her eyes to an industry she had long been a part of - having worked with brands like Louis Vuitton and stars like Miranda Kerr, Gisele Bündchen and Tilda Swinton. It became obvious to her that the only option was to launch her own beauty brand and change the way women use make-up. “I have worked so long in the beauty industry and I’ve seen the results of taking a quick-fix approach to looking good and know first-hand the price our health can pay in the pursuit of beauty,” she says. Her mineral, non-toxic, environmentally-friendly cosmetics are known for their clean credentials, of course, but also for the vivid shades and bold hues she been able to concoct.

Davines

The family-owned haircare brand is a firm favourite with fashion and beauty insiders, but it is also one of the leading voices on the sustainable beauty campaign trail. Along with fully recyclable hair products that utilise high-grade natural ingredients, Davines is committed to activating innovative projects that promote the message of beauty and sustainability. I Sustain Beauty, for instance, is a global call-out to the international community of beauty professionals to create projects that raise awareness of sustainability. This is all part of the 360-degree approach that underpins the company’s ideology. "By creating beauty sustainably, we encourage people to take care of themselves, of the environment in which they live and work and of the things they love.”

Hero Product: The Oi range Part of Davines's Zero Impact project, the Oi range uses roucou - an ingredient found in the Amazon - to restructure, soften and infuse hair with strengthening antioxidants. It smells incredible.

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Sana Jardin

Amy Christiansen Si-Ahmed’s fragrance company, Sana Jardin, may be based in London, but her philanthropic efforts are focused in Morocco. Her brand is as ethically minded as they come - including recycled bottles and caps; fragrances free of phthalates, artificial colourants, parabens and formaldehydes; and zero animal testing - and goes one step further by empowering its female workforce to develop their own side businesses with perfumery by-products.